Guest Author - Cynthia Phillips

What a week we had with the 700 Billion Bailout passing as law. Last Monday, "We the people" spoke; some of us wrote or called our representatives and the House of Representatives actually listened and rejected the Bailout. But, then on Friday, the people’s voices were overridden by special interests and lobbyists and the Bailout eventually passed in the Senate.

The Bailout means more government regulation and according to Ron Paul, it just prolongs the problem. We are headed for a deep recession, possibly a depression and we just gave the government a license to make it even worse by inflation, higher taxes, and more debt for our children—thanks Uncle Sam! Is it me or are we allowing the government, the Federal Reserve, and the special interests take our wealth and prosperity—essentially our freedom as Americans?

The Declaration of Independence states: "But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariable the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government…" I don’t see much evidence of us enacting this fundamental American right. This may be a harsh thing to say, but we probably deserve this because most us failed to act and educate our selves in this matter.

Dissent is patriotic because the people that actually care about their liberty and the liberties of their next generation want to defend and maintain that. Being a patriot does not mean waving a flag, or having a bumper sticker saying "Support the troops." A quote from Edward Abbey comes to mind: "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." It sickens me as a military wife when people have those supposedly patriotic symbols, but fail to really do something about it when it comes to a crisis.

I am at the point as a writer and activist where I want to throw my hands up in the air and say "forget it." But, I have a small group of people that I meet with twice a month and we try our best to educate and inform others. And, that small educated and informed group of friends that I have is what keeps me going. The group has grown over the months, and I hope that it continues. Also, my faithful readers of my column keep me going and I just wanted to take the time to thank you all, it truly means a great deal to me. Remember the words of Thomas Jefferson: "Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."